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2018 » Papers » Volume 1 » Stimulating Discussion in Online Environment: A Case Study 1. STIMULATING DISCUSSION IN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT: A CASE STUDY Authors: Chattopadhyay Satya Volume 1 | DOI: 10.12753/2066-026X-18-052 | Pages: 376-379 | Download PDF | Abstract
As a Jesuit institution, the mission of our University is "cura personalis" or education of the whole person, and significant emphasis is placed on the Socratic learning which focuses on questions raised between individuals. These interactions: the questions and answers are the basis for developing critical thinking skills that are seminal to Jesuit (Ignatian) pedagogy. Online courses allow us to reach out to a larger audience, and often to those who otherwise cannot enroll in regular classes due to family and/or work place commitments. This case study covers business students enrolled in a core marketing course, in the third year of their program. Data is collected on three different options that were implemented for the on-line discussion forum, which is a requirement for the web based, asynchronous learning course. For the first option there are no prompts for the forum, and students are asked to pose questions in the forum and answer them. For option 2, students are provided a prompt (by the instructor). For option 3, each student must first post a question related to the class topic being covered, and base it on a current business situation taken from a business publication. All students must then respond to two or more questions posed by their classmates. The data collected on the three options relate both to the quality and the quantity of the student discussions via rubrics that are communicated to the students in the syllabus. Analysis of the data using SPSS software supports option 3 as the alternative yielding the best results. | Keywords
On-line learning, socratic learning, discussion forum |
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